It's coming down to crunch time for Florida's football schools, and this is a huge weekend for visits

Chris HaysOrlando Sentinel

There are three more weekends, counting this one, until National Signing Day, and schools are trying to make that final surge to fill gaps and lure some decisions out of prospects on whom they have been waiting.

The big Florida football schools will be hosting numerous recruits this weekend, many of whom arrived Friday night, like Tampa Catholic WR Christian Green, who is visiting Gainesville along with teammate OL Chaz Green.

Florida will be entertaining five undecided prospects, including the Green boys, as well as Tampa Leto DB Jeremy Deering, LB Darrin Kitchens of Homestead and Cincinnati OL Matt James.

Florida State has 10 prospects coming in, but eight of them have already committed to the Seminoles. The undecided players upon whom FSU will be hoping to make an impression are Connecticut Salisbury School teammates TE Will Tye (6-3, 230) and DT Bjoern Werner (6-4, 264).

Werner, a native of Germany who has only played full- contact American football for four years, spent his junior year back in Berlin after a bout of homesickness. He missed football so much, however, that he returned to Connecticut this past July and decided college football was his goal. He could be a diamond in the rough. Already ranked a 3-star by Rivals.com., Werner is still considered a project, but not a major project.

Miami has an opportunity this weekend to try and flip coveted DB Latwan Anderson (5-11, 185) of Cleveland's Glenville school, where Ted Ginn Jr. played and his father still coaches. Anderson picked West Virginia over Miami and North Carolina last week at the Army All-American Bowl, but the Hurricanes get to roll out the red carpet Saturday.

Another interesting weekend of visits will be taking place in Tampa, where new USF coach Skip Holtz will host about 10 prospects, including coveted Bradenton Manatee teammates QB Brion Carnes and WR Ace Sanders. Carnes is already committed to the Bulls, but has said he's still open to offers, and Sanders is undecided.

All of the coaching turmoil around the country has had players confused heading into these final weeks before signing day, including Sanders and Carnes.

"We talked it over and we still wanna take the visit up to USF this weekend so we can get some understanding," Sanders said via e-mail.

New coach Skip Holtz would do well to keep the Tampa-area kids at home, which has been an issue in the past. The top-ranked players in the Tampa area for 2010 -- the two Greens and Hillsborough's Terrence Mitchell, an FSU commit, aren't likely in the picture for USF this year.

Nabbing a player like Carnes is a move that could get things rolling on the local front, and there are certainly plenty of talented Tampa-area players from which to choose. Leto's Deering and Manatee's Sanders are good examples.

Holtz needs to own that left coast to make his mark not only in the state recruiting wars, but also on the field in the Big East.